KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s manufacturing sector sales value rose 2.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM158.7 billion in May compared with a 4.7% y-o-y growth in April, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the May sales value growth was mainly contributed by the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector, sustaining the strong expansion with a 13% increase, against April’s 10.8% expansion.
“This growth was also supported by the electrical and electronics (E&E) products and the non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products sub-sectors, which rose by 5% (April 2025: 9.6%) and 3.7% (April 2025: 4.6%), respectively.
“However, the sales value dropped by 1.1% to RM158.7 billion against RM160.4 billion recorded in the prior month,” he said in a statement.
Mohd Uzir said the sales value in the export-oriented industries, which accounted for 71.1% of total sales, grew by 2.7% in May 2025 (April: 5.1%). The performance was primarily due to the increase in the manufacture of vegetable, animal oils and fats by 15.9% (April 2025: 12.2%).
Meanwhile, the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products expanded by 4.9% (April 2025: 10.2%t), and the manufacture of machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified advanced by 7.7% (April: 9.5%).
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, export-oriented industries rebounded to 0.1% (April: -3.3%). Likewise, the domestic-oriented industries expanded by 1.9% in May, following a 3.6% rise in April.
The performance was supported by robust growth in the manufacture of food processing products at 10.5% in May (April: 10%), as well as in the manufacture of basic metals (4.3%) and manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (3.5%).
On a month-on-month comparison, domestic-oriented industries declined 3.9%.
Mohd Uzir said 2.4 million employees were recorded in this sector in May, on a 0.9% augmentation (April: 1.2%).
On a month-on-month basis, the number of employees in this sector marginally decreased by 0.1%.
“Salaries and wages paid in the manufacturing sector posted an increase of 1.6% (April: 2.4%), amounting to RM8.3 billion in May 2025. Furthermore, the salaries and wages paid improved by 0.2% compared with RM8.3 billion recorded in the preceding month,” he said.
Mohd Uzir said that in the first five months this year, manufacturing sector sales value amounted to RM794.7 billion, an increase of 3.8% compared to the same period of 2024 (3.3%). The number of employees increased by 0.9% to 2.4 million persons, while salaries and wages increased by 1.9% to RM41.9 billion. – Bernama
